Hafta letters: Indian cricket, pronunciation woes, new shows

Requesting NL to please start a CEO fund so that subscribers can top up Abhinandan to be nominated for India Today CEO of the year. Worth it just for the trolling.

AA

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Agree that a Bihari writer should be allowed Bihari way of speaking and so on. That’s okay for the language. But proper names should be pronounced properly. It doesn't matter if you are a bus conductor or a scientist. But as a media professional, you should. When we are born we can say only “pa” and “ma”. The rest all we learn by the method called “monkey see monkey do”.

Manisha, the word in my list was Salman Rushdie (not Khurshid). He is pronounced रुशदी not रशदी. And there is no ण in सीतारामन. Don't make it a priority, but don't say it does not matter. Ask a Dixit or Hardik how they feel when British anchors call them “dick shit” and “hard dick”!

To my list of mispronounced words on Hafta, please add “Siddique Kappan”. It is सिद्दीक़ काप्पन and not सिद्दीकी कप्पन.

Ravi

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Longtime subscriber but felt compelled to write due to the two new shows launched: Ye Bhi Theek Hai and Back in Time. Right from the production quality (especially the background setup) to the guests and the whole experience, everything is on a par with the BBCs and CNNs of the world. Love the new shows being brought in by NL. Kudos to the team.

Not sure but I am feeling super proud of being a subscriber of NL for the past few days, feels like I was part of this somehow.

Vikas Tripathi

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Dear NL team,

This is an angry mail so please bear with me. All your subscribers are not well-read PhD scholars, some are also angry cricket fans.

First of all, I am fed up of the restarting of the iOS app whenever you have to use another app or take a call for a second or so. The app restarts and most of the time does not remember the latest timestamp of the podcast. I know you guys work really hard but as a digital media company, your digital product needs to be up to the mark.

Second point is that I am aghast by the level of cricket illiteracy of the regular panel. I know Abhinandan is notorious for not even considering cricket a sport. The panel opined that the players have not shown any spine. This is not true. Virat Kohli in last year’s T20 World Cup came out in support of M Shami after he was attacked on social media in a clear cut manner. Speculatively it might have been one of the various reasons he lost favour with the board which has Jay Shah as member.

Ibrahim

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Hi NL team, loved episode 397, especially the discussion on Jharkhand. I have one comment for those who used abusive words against Arshdeep. Guys, Team India is not an official Indian team (we may have one if cricket gets to the Olympics, but not yet). These are paid players of a club controlled by the BCCI, professional cricketers who are paid for their performances.

Why are you getting so nationalistic about these players? Isn’t it enough that they are playing and entertaining you?

Also, please consider doing a story on those NRIs (friends of BJP) who support Hindutva politics and supporting crushing minorities back home while enjoying equal rights being minorities themselves here in the US. I mentioned this in one of my earlier comments but it went unnoticed.

Korak

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Abhinandan's overgeneralization of an out-of-context video in the UK will probably make a good addition to Newsance (though it wasn't on TV, hope you get my point).

Ramith